Kohala Lighthouse Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, folks, it’s Rusty here. Let’s cut through it. Look, I’ve been staring at the charts for this stretch and honestly, the next couple of weeks are a write-off for proper surfing. We’re looking at a long, frustrating gap. The whole 16-day run is dominated by strong, persistent cross-shore winds, mostly out of the east and east-northeast, which will ruin any chance of clean surf. The only break on the map is Kohala Lighthouse (Hawaii, USA), an advanced reef setup that’s usually exposed to the north, but this swell we’re getting is coming from the east-northeast.

Right now, through the end of August and into the first days of September, it’s a brutal grind. We get some size—swell builds to 7 ft on Saturday the 22nd and Sunday the 23rd, even touching 7 ft to 7 ft with moderate wave energy around 300 to 650—but every single session is marked “poor surf conditions.” That cross-breeze is just tearing it up, making it lumpy and messy. A 13 ft swell is predicted to hit on Monday the 31st of August with a huge combined energy of 3540, but with onshore winds of 19 mph, that’s just a washing machine. It’s a write-off. If you're a kiter, maybe there’s some action, but for a paddle surfer, it’s a hard pass.

The only flicker of hope, and I mean a tiny one, arrives on Wednesday the 2nd of September. The morning shows the wind dropping to a light breeze from the east-northeast at just 6 mph, turning the wind to a light cross-shore. The swell sits at a solid 7 ft with a period of 9 seconds, and the energy is sitting at 714 (moderate). The forecast calls it “marginal” and only scores it a 2. That makes it the best of a bad bunch. It won't be perfect, but that's the one window for a chance at something rideable before the wind picks right back up to a fresh breeze by the afternoon and ruins it.

After that, it's back to the same old story right through to the 5th of September. There’s a little pulse in the long-range—on Friday the 4th we see a 7 ft swell from the east-northeast with a long 13-second period and strong energy of 1393 (moderate), but again the wind switches to cross. It’s a tease. A promising groundswell, but the wind and conditions won't let it shine.

Overall: This is a tough outlook. The entire 16-day run is a blank for clean, quality surf. We've got size on tap at times, but the wind just won't cooperate. The only half-chance is that Wednesday morning on September 2nd, when a light breeze might give us a few clean ones at Kohala Lighthouse. Otherwise, keep the board in the bag.

Rusty.

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